The Free, Open Source Software Movement

My story is about the development of open source and free software. This is not, as you may think, something that just concerns computer nerds. It is an example of a different approach to how we develop new ideas and new products. I consider the broad open source movement to have resonances with the co-operative movement of the nineteenth century. That in simple terms: we can achieve greater results by co-operating and sharing with each other than can be achieved solely by competitiveness.

The broad sense of achievement that can be fulfilled by creativity is not restricted to “The Arts”; we all feel a buzz of excitement by being part of a broadly creative activity whether it is as a member of a choir, a photographic group or a philosophical discussion group. This sense of belonging to and contributing to a collective process is fundamental to human nature. It is built into our genetic structure.

Modern society may be seen as adversely effecting our ability to form and maintain communities, but on the other hand we have never been more connected. It is the effectiveness and the quality of this connectivity that should be of concern to us It is a phenomenon which society as whole has a stake in not just powerful lobbies. There are bad things in “cyber-space” but there also very good things and we must not sacrifice the latter in an attempt to eradicate the former.

The following quotes represents what we, I believe, should be aiming for:

The network information economy makes it possible to reshape both the “who” and the “how” of cultural production……….. It adds to the centralized, market-orientated production system a new framework of radically decentralized individual and co-operative non market production. It thereby affects the ability of individuals and groups to participate in the production of the cultural tools and frameworks of human understanding and discourse. It affects the way we, as individuals and members of social and political clusters inter-act with culture, and through it each other. It makes culture more transparent to its in habitants. It makes the process of cultural production more participatory, in the sense that more of those who live in a culture can actively participate in its creation. We are seeing the possibility of an emergence of a new popular culture, produced on the folk-culture model and inhabited actively, rather than passively consumed by the masses. Through these twin characteristics- transparency and participation- the network information economy also creates greater space for critical evaluation of cultural materials and tools. The practice of producing culture makes us all more sophisticated readers, viewers and listeners as well as more engaged makers.

Yochai Benkler “The Wealth of Networks” 275 (2006)

The joy of being able to be helpful to someone- to answer a question simply because it is asked and one knows a useful answer, to be part of team driving towards a worthwhile goal- is one ot the best aspects of being human, and our information technology architecture has stumbled in a zone where those qualities can be elicited and affirmed for tens of millions of people.

Jonathan Zittrain “The Future of the Internet- and How to Stop It”

What can you do?

First of all, don’t be fooled by packaging; a shrink-wrapped box does not guarantee quality.
Start simple and work up to more freedom.
If you use Windows:
Use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/about/
Use Thunderbird instead of Outlook Express:
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/
Use Open Office instead of Microsoft Office or Microsoft Works. http://www.openoffice.org/
Use GIMP instead of Photoshop: http://www.gimp.org/
Use Scribus instead of Microsoft Publisher. http://www.scribus.net/
Use Inkscape instead of Corel Draw or any other vector graphics program:
http://www.inkscape.org/

If you want a specialist item of software check this site for Free “Libre” Open Source Software alternatives. http://directory.fsf.org/
Help the developers by reporting bugs. Yes, you have always been part of quality control- just accept it!
Ask people not to send you closed format files such as .doc :-
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
http://www.digistan.org/hague-declaration:en

If you want more freedom, install an easy to use GNU/Linux distro along side your Windows operating system. (Get help for this).
http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate/

Explore citizen sites:
The Electronic Frontier. http://www.eff.org/
The Open Rights Group http://www.openrightsgroup.org/
My Society http://www.mysociety.co.uk/
WikiLeaks http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Category:United_Kingdom
The Convention for Modern Liberty http://www.modernliberty.net/

And finally….
Here are the slides from my recent presentation:

The Open Source Movement
View more presentations from Howard Berry.

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